When you observe something, how do you know for sure what you are seeing, feeling, smelling, or hearing? Asking students to think critically about their encounters with the natural world will help to strengthen their understanding and application of the science-process skills of observation and inference. In the following lesson, students make…

Carefully selected trade books can introduce science concepts, develop background knowledge, reinforce hands-on lessons, support science-process skills, and at the same time enhance related literacy-process skills. They can also provide inspiration and structure for integrated science and literacy lessons. Based on these ideas, the authors…

Students' learning about the nature of science (NOS) consists of two related aspects that include their understandings of and ability to apply science processes, and their beliefs about NOS. To help students develop such understandings, the New Society activity gets them talking to each other about science, using the language of science such as…

This article describes a one-week introduction to stochastic groundwater modeling, intended for the end of a first course on groundwater hydrology, or the beginning of a second course on stochastic hydrogeology or groundwater modeling. The motivation for this work is to strengthen groundwater education, which has been identified among the factors…

Problem statement: Organization of science learning activities is necessary to rely on various methods of organization of learning and to be appropriate to learners. Organization of project-based learning activities and inquiry-based learning activities are teaching methods which can help students understand scientific knowledge. It would be more…

The many activities contained in this teaching guide emphasize hands-on involvement, prediction, data collection and interpretation, teamwork, and problem solving. The guide also contains background information about aeronautical research that can help students learn how airplanes fly. Following the background sections are a series of activities…

Required science courses can have limited interest from some students. In this article, a physics professor and a science librarian describe methods used to engage non majors in learning about science in a non-threatening way. By evaluating the science on selected web sites, and classifying the sites according to six categories (valid,…

A piece of children's literature can be a powerful tool for teaching and learning science; however, it takes more than reading about a topic to qualify as "doing science." Inspired by the book, "The Gift of the Tree", the author developed an in-depth interdisciplinary lesson for her sixth-grade students without diluting the science. Through this…

Both substantive (i.e. factual knowledge, concepts, laws and theories) and procedural knowledge (understanding and applying concepts such as reliability and validity, measurement and calibration, data collection, measurement error, the ability to interpret evidence and the like) are involved in carrying out an open-ended science investigation.…

One of the most important goals the author has for students in his introductory-level physical geology course is to give them the conceptual skills for solving geologic problems on their own. He wants students to leave his course as individuals who can use their knowledge of geologic processes and logic to figure out the extended geologic history…

One of the requirements of the twenty-first century is raising a child who is an explorer and who can solve problems rather than being able to memorize facts. One of the indispensible foundations of exploring and problem-solving is having scientific process skills and being able to use them effectively. In order to raise little scientists with a…

The future of higher education in the sciences will be marked by programs that link skilled educators and research scientists from around the world with teachers for professional development and with students for high-impact learning--either virtually or physically in the field. These programs will use technology where possible to build new and…

This teaching paper utilizes the materials presented by Dr. Fabiato in his review article entitled "Calcium-induced release of calcium from the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum." In the review, supporting evidence of calcium-induced calcium release (CICR) is presented. Data concerning potential objections to the CICR theory are discussed as well. In…

Do dinosaurs have bellybuttons? This intriguing question launched a journey into inquiry science that captivated a class of four-year-olds for eight months. As students enjoyed dinosaur books, examined dinosaur artifacts, drew pictures, watched videos, and generally immersed themselves in all things dinosaur, the authors built a culture of…

Fermi problems, or order of magnitude estimates, are often used in introductory physics courses. In this paper I will show that first year students studying physics at university do not arrive with the skill set to solve these problems, and they have to be actively taught how to solve them. Once they have been shown how to solve Fermi problems,…